An acclaimed contemporary of Haydn and Mozart, Anton Zimmermann spent a considerable span of his productive life in Bratislava, the then capital of Hungary. He excelled as a composer, violinist, conductor and artist manager. His extensive body of work, virtually unknown today, covers almost all genres and forms of the period. Modelled on those of Joseph Haydn, Zimmermann’s quartets and other chamber works for strings are noteworthy for their ‘symphonic’ writing and expressive melodies, which set them apart from the decorative chamber music of many of his contemporaries.

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An acclaimed contemporary of Haydn and Mozart, Anton
Zimmermann spent a considerable span of his productive life in Bratislava
(Pressburg, the Hungarian Pozsony). Not only did he fit in perfectly with the
prevailing cultural environment, but very soon after settling there, at the
beginning of the 1770s, he found himself in a leading position in the musical
life of the city. Then the capital of Hungary, it was also the centre of
political, economic, religious, and cultural development of the country. As an
important centre of European musical culture of the time, the city was able to
provide a good living and ample creative space for many prominent composers.
The cultural standards of the day also attracted a great many skilled
musicians, and even such important figures as Joseph Haydn, Mozart and
Beethoven contributed to the city’s rich cultural heritage.

It seems probable that Anton Zimmermann had his musical
education in Silesia, where he was born in 1741 at Siroká Niva (Breitenau). It
is known that he had served as an organist at the cathedral in Hradec Kralové
(Königgrätz). In Bratislava he was employed by the Bishop and, some time later,
by the Cardinal and Hungarian Primate Count Jozef Batthyányi (1727-1799). Until
his premature death in October 1781, Anton Zimmermann served there in a variety
of rôles, as an artistic manager, a conductor, a violinist, and a Princely
Court Composer (fürstlicher Hofkompositeur).

Cardinal Batthyányi’s orchestra enjoyed a very considerable
reputation throughout Central Europe, and it was for this that Zimmermann
composed much of his instrumental music. He left an extensive body of work in
almost all musical genres and forms of the day. Most significant in terms of
development, however, are his instrumental compositions, above all symphonies,
concertos, sonatas, and chamber compositions, with duets, trios, quartets,
quintets, sextets, and various other works.

A major part of Zimmermann’s music which he managed to
publish himself is in the field of chamber music. To this belong the Six
Sonatas, Op. 2, and the Six Quartets, Op. 3, issued under the title SEI
/QUARTETTI/ per / Due Violini, Viola e Basso /Composti/ del Signore /ZIMMERMANN
Thedesco. / OPERA IIIa. These were published by Quera in Lyons. But while the
public was informed of the publication of the Sonatas, Op. 2, by the Journal de
Paris in 1777, the appearance of the Quartets, Op. 3, seems to have had no
mention in the press. More information as to the date of publication, however,
comes from Breitkopf’s thematic catalogue. In the list of works published in
the years 1776-1777, the catalogue records the printed edition of Anton
Zimmermann’s Six Quartets, Op. 3. At the moment, the printed version of the
quartets is preserved in the Brussels Conservatoire, while the manuscripts are
in the Prague National Museum, Vienna National Austrian Library, and at the
Benedictine monastery of Kremsmünster.

Anton Zimmermann drew heavily on Joseph Haydn’s
compositional idiom. The latter’s influence is clearly identifiable not only in
symphonies, which led to some confusion of attribution, but also in the chamber
music. Apart from comparable melodic writing, affinities can be traced
primarily in the compositional techniques employed and in the way the cycles of
works have been constructed. Zimmermann, of course, was not the only composer
to have broken away from earlier restrictions of phrasal forms and to produce
more flexible structures, capable of accommodating and combining a variety of
formal elements.

The principal feature of Zimmermarm’s chamber music for
strings, compared with the work of other composers of the period, is its
tendency towards orchestral idioms in structure and style. The application of
orchestral stylistic elements brought remarkable melodic results, leading to an
enhanced expressive capacity and an economy of compositional devices. This
allowed Zimmermann to attain in his chamber music fresh, innovative effects
which set it apart from mainstream stile galant chamber music of the day. This
judgement is amply supported by the first three of the Six Quartets, Op. 3, the
Quartets in E flat major, B major, and F major).

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